Fashion style is about what you choose

The Cotton Sweatshirt

The focus on comfort wear and the advent of the millennials into the workplace have meant that street clothing is finding its way into the office. Whether it is a multinational firm or the next door department store, more and more businesses are now favoring comfort wear for their employees. This rise of these clothes from the gym and dorms to the corner office and boardroom can be gauged from the launch of new styles in street wear by the top fashion brands around the world.

In some ways, the foray of the top players into this field has been more of a blessing than anything else. Their presence, for instance, has revolutionized the styling and designs in these otherwise formless street wear. Anybody who does not have an idea of how much street wear has changed in terms of styling only needs to look up a 80s or 90s music video and compare it with what they see out of their windows, let aside turning to the latest chartbuster video. The change will be quite apparent, and in some ways shocking.

One way to understand is trend is to look at a piece of clothing that everyone has worn at some time or the other in their lives – the cotton sweatshirt. The cotton sweatshirt has been around for quite some time and many people will remember their favorite sweatshirt, whether they wore it in school, college or at home. Though not many wore it to work or to meetings, that seems to have changed now. Many people are finding it easier to wear it to work as companies focus less on attire and more on work quality. Also, a global cross-cultural workforce has meant that ideas of what is proper business wear is undergoing a change as people across cultures opt for their favorite sweatshirt to work.

Among the many reasons, cotton sweatshirts have become popular, two stand out. The first is the rise of iconic leaders in the most happening industry – IT, who preferred to wear their favorite cotton sweatshirt to work. These leaders gave product launch presentations and investor presentations, and appeared on prime time shows and in public wearing their jeans and sweatshirts. Leading exceptional companies that defied the norm and redefined how business can be done, they were much cooler than the suit wearing bankers and business leaders who lost millions and lead the world to a recession. No wonder, youngsters started emulating these outliers and chose to remodel their entire wardrobe depending on what these people wore.

The second is the more regular use of the cotton sweatshirt by popular cultural icons such as pop stars, rappers, film stars, and celebrities. They seem to wear them everywhere and in some cases, even to award shows. Such patronage only served to make the humble sweatshirt more popular.

This trend is likely to continue as people eschew the vanity of stylized clothing for everyday wear and focus on clothes that are comfortable and much happier than a stiff buttoned up shirt and suit.